Battyeford pupils set up business for their movie merchandise

Pupils at Battyeford Primary School have been making an animated film, The Pirates Of Rabbit Doll Island, which will get its premiere at the Odeon cinema in Huddersfield on Tuesday March 5.

The film inspired pupils to design Rabbit Doll brooches which they are making and selling, and which have even been pictured with Hollywood legend Whoopi Goldberg.

Janie Lambeth, who se sons William and Oliver are pupils at Battyeford School in Nab Lane, helped the children to set up a business for the brooches, the Rabbit Doll Company.

She said: “We just made a few badges for a bit of fun, which then progressed to making enough for each of the children to wear at the premiere.

“What happened after that is that everyone wanted one, but I said I didn’t have time to make hundreds of badges, so we started looking at a project to give the pupils an insight into running a business.

“The children have been working out how they will get other people to make them, how they will market them and how they will sell them.”

The Rabbit Doll brooches are now on sale at Beadelicious in Huddersfield Road, which is also selling Rabbit Doll rugs made by Yorkshire Fur Fabrics and dolls made at a factory run by a parent’s contact in China.

Sister Act actress Whoopi Goldberg is just one of the people to have worn one of the brooches, after a chance meeting with a Battyeford parent on a recent trip to the USA.

The original film project came about with from the British Film Institute, which agreed to support four films through its First Light scheme.

Battyeford School art teacher Natalie Deane said: “It’s totally out of the ordinary for the children and it’s not something they would encounter during everyday life in the classroom.”